Now I paid attention for two reasons. Firstly I find possessed people fascinating. But more importantly the possessed man, Julius Malema, happens to be the leader of the ANC Youth League.
Julius Malema is one of the most controversial names in South African politics these days - and that gives you a pretty good hint at exactly how controversial he is. He is a staunch supporter of the ANC president Jacob Zuma and Julius has said that he is not only willing to die for Zuma, he is also willing to kill for him. Julius's comments about the woman who was alledgedly raped by Zuma was "she had a nice time" - based on some obscure reasoning that women ask for taxi money if they liked 'it', but leave early in the morning without asking for money if they didn't like 'it'. Julius Malema has an ability to
make it to the frontpage of South African newspapers for radical, absurd and aggressive comments that have earned him the name Julius 'foot-in-mouth' Malema.
make it to the frontpage of South African newspapers for radical, absurd and aggressive comments that have earned him the name Julius 'foot-in-mouth' Malema. And since he is in the ANC his 'foot-in-mouth' comments are very often directed at other political parties and their members. But not all seem to mind. One such party is the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) who has called Julius Malema "the Grand Hero of all opposition parties". An IFP spokesperson told News24:
"Never in the history of the ANC has any human being effectively sabotaged the ANC as much as our Grand Hero Julius Malema"
"Never in the history of the ANC has any human being effectively sabotaged the ANC as much as our Grand Hero Julius Malema"
But not all opposition parties subscribe to that opinion - they are really offended by his comments. Like really really offended. One such offended party is African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP). According to a press statement released in the beginning of March 2009, the ACDP is annoyed with Julius Malema's arrogance and glorification of thuggery. Well that's understandable. What is more interesting is that ACDP seems to know something that the rest of us don't - namely why Julius Malema is such an arrogant p.. well.. person.
I guess ACDP being a Christian party may have a hotline to the 'big boss' up there who feeds them inside info that is not available to the rest of us. Things like.. um.. the fact that Julius Malema is possessed by evil spirits!!
With that kind of information the obvious thing to do must be to release a press statement telling the whole world about it. And that's exactly what ACDP did.
And it was this piece of interesting news that had made it to the news on the radio that I was listening to.
Like many other news stories it was very brief and it didn't satisfy my need to know more. So I had the option of holding hands with myself asking the 'big guy' in the clouds for some more info - or try google. I chose the latter.
For some strange reason the news was not all over the place (i.e. the internet). On the ACDP website the press statement was nowhere to be found. But I found one blog, Jozi Journo, where the blogger - being a local journalist - had seen the actual press statement. In the press statement Julius Malema is in one place referred to as 'he of the displeasing metric results' - hinting at the poor grades Julius Malema got in school in woodwork and mathematics (and apparently everything else too).
The following excerpt is copied from Jozi Journo's blog exactly like she copied it from the ACDP press statement:
"We believe that only a man under the spell of the evil spirits which once attacked Legion of Gaderines can spew the kind of things coming out of Malema's mouth, yet never lose any amount of sleep. We now have good reasons to suspect that those evil spirits have left the pigs and have found a new home in the young man. We therefore call upon all Christians and citizens to join us in praying for Malema so that these spirits could leave him in peace. Although very little is know about Malema's late mother, we should also pray for her spirit to rest in peace in the wake of Malema's reign of madness."
"We believe that only a man under the spell of the evil spirits which once attacked Legion of Gaderines can spew the kind of things coming out of Malema's mouth, yet never lose any amount of sleep. We now have good reasons to suspect that those evil spirits have left the pigs and have found a new home in the young man. We therefore call upon all Christians and citizens to join us in praying for Malema so that these spirits could leave him in peace. Although very little is know about Malema's late mother, we should also pray for her spirit to rest in peace in the wake of Malema's reign of madness."
You should take the time to read the full blogpost at http://jozijourno.blogspot.com/2009/03/julius-and-evil-spirits.html
Well what can I say? Elections are set for 22. April 2009 in South Africa - and this is only the beginning. I think it's safe to say that it will be an entertaining month..
